- Joined
- Jun 30, 2016
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- 4,695
I had the pleasure of carrying this knife for a few days as part of a passaround here on the forum. Thought I should post my findings for anyone interested.
Fidget Factor: This knife flips perfectly. I very rarely enjoy frame locks as a fidget toy, but that's actually what I did most with this knife. Being a loner and nice as it is I didn't want to attack it too hard and chop down any trees or anything with it, but I did spend a fair amount of time watching TV and flipping, closing the knife over and over.
Pivot: The ornamental pivot doesn't do a lot for me. I think it looks odd on the knife as it has decorative cutouts, but of an entirely different motif. It also kept coming loose. I don't know if anyone who had it before me had the knife apart, but there was apparently no threadlocker of any sort applied, so after a few flips the pivot would start to walk itself apart. Finally I torqued it down a bit more. I didn't want to use any Loctite and risk getting some into the pivot. It doesn't quite guillotine closed anymore, but will still fall with a little agitation. Most importantly though, the pivot stays put and there's no play.
Blade: I only used it for light cutting tasks, but didn't have any problem with any of them. The M390 performs beautifully as you'd expect. Just a couple of quick swipes on the strop when it arrived and it stayed sharp for my entire experience. Cardboard, a little wood, paper, tape and zip ties. No issue at all.
Handle: I found the handle very comfortable. The edges are a little sharp, but no more so than most G10 Spydies. I found the large finger groove to be perfectly sized for my index and middle fingers while the bottom of the handle accommodated the rest of my hand in various positions. It was equally comfortable in a reverse grip. I'd imagine that most people with medium/large hands would find it more than adequate.
Clip: The clip is perfect. Good retention without shredding your pocket. Milled without sitting so proud that it tears up upholstery or catches on material as you pass by. The anodizing on the clip has also held up quite well. It rode in my back pocket most days and was sat on quite a bit.
Overall: It's a bit too heavy for me to be honest. It's not a pocket brick by any means and is lighter than a lot of slab sided titanium knives that I've handled, but still a bit heavier than I like to carry. It's flips beautifully and makes a great fidget toy. The detent is perfect. Absolutely perfect. I really like the milling and the contrasting anodizing on this model. My gripe aesthetically, along with the pivot, is that the backspacer is anodized the same color as the rest of the knife, so you get this sea of blue on the back. It's a well shaped spacer and would look much, much better if they'd polished it rather than anodizing it the same blue color.
If you're in the market for a titanium, framelock flipper I'd absolutely recommend the Maxace Cicada.